Restaurant Deals: Blackboard Eats

Of all of my skills, skepticism is chief among them. So well-developed is my skeptical nature that I have the lines on my brow to prove it. So when I got a press release about yet another email newsletter touting "restaurant deals" I nearly deleted it. (OK. I did delete it. Thankfully my trash file never gets emptied. My apologies to our one-man IT department, always keeping me a step away from disaster.)

But Blackboard Eats, which recently launched her in SF after successful debuts in New York and LA, is actually pretty great. It's not that the website is doing something that's never been done before—that is, offering discounts at restaurants, with notifications of the deals coming to you by weekly email—but what separates Blackboard from the others is that the deals are for restaurants where you actually want to eat. For example, last week the deal (which you have to nab when you see it, as they sell out and change frequently) was 30 percent off dinner at Serpentine, with very little in the way of small print. Right now, it's a free appetizer at Oakland restaurant Camino. You can also sign up to receive the national deals, which include discounts on Intelligentsia coffee, Spiegelau glassware and other good stuff.

Sign up today (free!) and get in on the action—after all, who amongst us couldn't use a break?